Confessions of a TV Slut

kassto asked me some questions yesterday about the nascent beginnings of my Buffy obsession, and my reply is under the LJ cut. These are the questions she asked:

How did you know to watch it from the start? How long before you were hooked in? Which was your favourite season? How would you rank the seven seasons? What's your favourite episode from each season?

I could make this a meme - WOO HOO!

How did you know to watch it from the start?

J saw the ads on TV for it, so we knew it was coming - he had watched the movie and wanted to watch the TV show, he was about 9 or 10, but also a regular X-Files watcher, so the genre was appealing to him.

How long before you were hooked in?

Hooked pretty much straight away, although annoying timeslot changes by the TV station made it hard to initially keep track of the show. Obsession probably kicked in with the release of S1 DVDs, and reruns on TV.

Which was your favourite season?

Season Five - The family theme really worked well this season, and it had so many good things going on - Xander gets out of the basement, Giles stops drinking and gets a life, Riley goes dark and leaves (yay), Willow and Tara are good together, Dawn is not too annoying, the heartbreaking death of Joyce, the Buffybot!!!, Spike - the fool for love. It all gelled together and made for a great season - I still tear up at the end of The Gift - but that could be because I know what coming in Season 6 ;-)

How would you rank the seven seasons?

Really hard to do, and I moved them around a lot, and if you asked me tomorrow, I'd probably rate them differently.

7 - S6 Although some of the early episodes were wonderful, and it includes 2 of my all time favourite episodes (Once More With Feeling and Tabula Rasa), overall I find it the most painful, and have not yet been able to re-watch the whole season.

6 - S1 Only 12 episodes but does include some great episodes and Joss begins to show us the wonders of his mind.

5 - S7 Yes, yes I know there are many detractors of this season, but I liked many aspects of it (mostly the B/S moments, and yes I know I’m strange and obviously off my rocker, but there you go).

4 - S3 One word - Faith, or make that two words - Faith and Wesley (how I loved that little rogue demon hunter to be).

3 - S4 Lost Oz but gained Spike.

2 - S2 Spike - Dru - Angelus, what a triumvirate.

1 - S5 Fool for Love, ‘nuf said, possibly in reflection this season would have been a good end to the series.

What's your favourite episode from each season?

S1 - The Puppet Show - Snyder, horny puppet, Giles the director, what’s not to love, “Mm. He thought it would behoove me to have more contact with the students. I did try to explain that my vocational choice of librarian was a deliberate attempt to minimize said contact, but, uh, he would have none of it.” Behoove, oh how I love this show!

S2 - Tie between School Hard “Home, sweet home” (SPIKE!!) and Passion - Angelus at his best, “Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping... waiting... And though unwanted... unbidden... it will stir... open its jaws, and howl.”

S4 - There were a lot of good episodes in this season, but I will have to go with the obvious and say Hush - the Gentlemen were so damned creepy, and it was such a brave televisual thing for Joss to do. Obviously no quote, but my favourite scene - Giles’ exposition with suitably grotesque illustrations, all done with The Dance Macabre playing in the background - fucking hysterical.

S5 - Fool for Love - The change from William to Spike, mesmerising “What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad.”

S6 - Tabula Rasa - For me the season concluded with this episode, the rest is a figment of someone’s warped imagination “We ... we kissed, you and me. All Gone With The Wind, with the rising music, and the rising ... music, and what was that, Buffy?

S7 - Sleeper - I’ve changed this about three times, but I’ll stick with this one I think, I liked the interaction between Spike and Buffy, plus Aimee Mann is singing! “As daft a notion as ‘Soulful Spike the Killer’ is, it is nothing compared to the idea that another girl could mean anything to me. This chip - they did to me. I couldn't help it. But the soul, I got on my own - for you.”

I will also say that my favourite SCENE from S7 is the church scene in Beneath You - the Joss rewrite of this scene is absolutely breathtaking, it has such a feel of Shakespeare about it, Spike’s words are so poignant, the lighting is incredible - I find myself not breathing when watching this scene. The original was so cruel and Spike-unfriendly, but Joss made it better, and then made it bloody marvellous.

“Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn’t? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev— To be a kind of man. And she shall look on him with forgiveness and everybody will forgive and love… and he will be loved. So everything’s okay, right? Can we rest now? Buffy, can we rest?”